City and Dog Bite Victim Reach a Settlement Following a Bite from Shelter Dog

STAMFORD, CT – The City of Stamford was listed as the defendant in a dog bite lawsuit after a dog at the Stamford Animal Shelter bit Matthew Lazarus while he was visiting the shelter. At the time, he was interested in adopting the same dog that bit him.

In 2012, Lazarus, who was 27 at the time, decided he was ready to add a dog to his life. He visited the shelter and spoke to a volunteer who took him to see a Rottweiler. While Lazarus was getting to know the dog, it bit his hand. The resulting injuries were so severe, Lazarus is no longer able to working the heating and air conditioning field.

At the time of the incident, the shelter as under the management of Laurie Hollywood who has since been removed from her position. She has also been criminally charged with reckless endangerment. Reports indicate that there were at least three other animals who went through the shelter who had a history of biting that she hid. When the animals were later adopted, the animals were involved in dog bite incidents.

When dog bite injury lawyer, Alan Scott Pickel, accepted Lazarus’s case, he launched an investigation into the Rottweiler’s history which indicated that prior to the dog biting his client, the dog has bitten two previous owners. It’s believed that Hollywood knew about the dog’s history and deliberately mislabeled the dog. There was also come confusion about whether or not the volunteer who introduced Lazarus to the Rottweiler was authorized to do so.

It took four years for the Lazarus’s dog bite case to be settled. A $290,000 settlement was eventually reached out of court. Pickel reports that his client is very happy with the results of the case.

As a culture, we’ve adopted the attitude that dogs are good and will never hurt us. While most dogs are quite good, there are exceptions, and as a result of these exceptions, someone gets bit, and it happens more often than you might think. According to data collected by an average of 1,000 people in the United States are severely bitten by a dog and require medical attention every single day. When a person has to be hospitalized as a result of a dog bite, they should anticipate that their medical bills will be about $18,200. Statistics indicate that approximately 76% of all dog attacks result in a fatality.

If you have been attacked and bitten by a dog, the first thing you need to do is seek medical assistance. The second thing you need to do is contact a good dog bite injury lawyer,  for example, and arrange for a consultation. If your dog bit lawyer feels you have the grounds of a civil lawsuit, they’ll launch an investigation into the episode, they will advise you as to whether or not you should file court papers.

Don’t assume that just because you’ve hired a dog bite injury lawyer that it means you’ll have to go through a jury trial. In most cases, a settlement is reached long before the court hearing.


Scroll to top